In most tobacco factories the machine communication landscape, both in primary and in secondary, is highly fragmented, both for machine-to-machine and machine-to-higher systems data streams.

The fragmentation is evident on many levels: physical media, protocols, data formats, sometimes proprietary, have added up over time with the machines. Unnecessarily high integration efforts result.

Moreover, extracting manufacturing insights from the machine data is a valuable opportunity that is severely limited by the fragmentation.

The Tobacco Machine Communication specification aims at harmonizing data exchange and interoperability requirements for the common benefit of both tobacco manufacturers and OEMs.

 

The Tobacco Machine Communication specification provides information-modelling concepts and object libraries that can be applied to model a complete production workcentre or line. It covers machine configurations, product flows, production, set-up, service, live status as well as historical information. Its scope encompasses both primary and secondary production, including conventional and heat-not-born products.